Category: Hackathon

My friend Tom Hobson and his partner in crime Zoe Daniels are organizing a Toronto version of Comedy Hack Day and it is happening in November. November 14 to November 15, 2015 to be exact.

This is a weekend long hackathon where you get to build a funny app, website, SaaS solution, hardware project or anything that you would like to build, provided it is funny/comedy related. As a developer you will have an entire weekend to do that, and at the end of the weekend you will get to demo your creation at a public show on Sunday night. A comedy show to be enjoyed by everyone who cares to join us!

If you have any excuse that you would like to use to avoid joining us, let me tell you this: your excuses SUCK! So join us. You will have a blast. And you will meet some awesome new friends. You have questions? Well Zoe and Tom are a friendly bunch, so go ahead and ask them anything!

If you are curious about what happened at other Comedy Hack Days, well check out LA, NYC, SF and everything you need to know about Comedy Hack Day Toronto can be found here, and here is how it is shaping up:

I wrapped up 2013 with a robotics hackathon which was incredibly exciting and I am starting the year with an art hackathon, the Gen Art Hackathon! I am really excited to be helping organize and support this next hackathon which is the brain child of my friend Xavier Snelgrove.

What is the Gen Art Hack: for starters, Gen Art or Generative Art (thanks Wikipedia!) refers to art that in whole or in part has been created with the use of an autonomous system. In this case a computer. Instead of using brush strokes we will be using algorithms to create masterpieces to share with the world.

The hackathon will be bringing together programmers interested in visual design and arts to play with new dynamic web technologies to create art. It will be a fast-paced lively environment where everyone is encouraged to have fun, collaborate and create.

And this little hackathon is already sold out! We have a waiting list if you are interested in being added to the wait list.

Our plan is very simple: the hackathon is a single day hackathon but we will get together on Friday to meet each other, learn what we don’t know in a series of workshops and figure out what we will be building on Saturday.

The Plan

We’ll run workshops on Friday, introducing you to the APIs (Canvas, WebGL, etc.) if you haven’t used them yet. You will be expected to have at least some basic programming knowledge. The next morning, the hackathon starts: we provide food and drink, fueling you while you create.

When and Where

The Gen Art Hackathon is taking place in the TinEye HQ in Toronto. Friday February 15th and Saturday February 16th.

Workshops start at 7 PM on Friday, February 15th. These will be a great place to meet your fellow hackers and artists, and brush up on your coding skills. The next morning, Saturday, February 16th at 10 AM, the hackathon begins. We hack all day, have dinner, and then at 7 PM have a public art opening, and you can show off your works.

What you can do ahead of the hackathon?

Connect with other hackers, check out the hackathon resources and brush up on your skills, start thinking about what you may build. Visit Form Follows Function and play with some of the gen art examples:

Another great resource has been put together by Mikael Hvidtfeldt Christensen, a physicist with a passion for computational chemistry, generative art, and complex systems in general.

Love a hardware hackathon? I am sure you do! Haven’t you heard hardware is the next big thing? This internet of things is for realz! Have you ordered you new Raspberry Pi yet?

Hardware hackathons: it is about designing and building something. So if you are interested in learning about hardware, designing something of your own and building it in a weekend then the Get Your Bot on is your hackathon.

As most you know I am a big fan of hackathons, and this one is no different except it is all hardware.

Get Your Bot On will bring together software and hardware hackers, makers, designers, geeks, hardware and software partners, mentors, judges and DIY curious.

Get Your Bot On will be held in the Mozilla offices; we will take care of all your refueling needs and more during the weekend and of course will provide all the hardware you will need to build your robot.

Here is everything you need to know:

This is a weekend hackathon so you will have plenty of time to build something, preferably a robot that moves. But if you have your heart set on building an articulated panda, well you can do that too

We will provide everything you need to build your robot or complete your project so there is no need for you to worry about any hardware. If you have special requests, please get in touch and we will see how we can help you.

We will provide mentors to guide you and answer all your questions while you are building

We will feed you and entertain you, but to win our prizes, you will need to impress our judges with your awesome creation.

– Register to attend. Registration is now open but space is limited, so don’t procrastinate if you want us to hold a spot for you.

– Know any sponsors? TinEye is proud to be a sponsor but the hackathon is looking for more sponsors to make this an awesome event. You can become a sponsor today, pick a sponsorship level you are comfortable with and help support this hackathon. If can’s sponsor but you know anyone who can help us offset the costs of the hackathon, please get in touch.

– Help us offset the cost of hardware by simply sponsoring some hardware. You can support our hardware acquisitions from as little as $1. Sponsor hardware now.

I am super excited about our next HackTO event. Happening here in Toronto on Saturday September 25. In the ideeplex! Details and registration here. I can see a Freebase application in my very near future! Come and join us if you are a developer. This is a developer only event – as you will be expected to roll up your sleeves and code up an awesome application to showcase to your peers at the end of the hack day. Looking forward to seeing up all so sign up if you haven’t already. We are nearly sold-out.

The first time I attended a hackathon it was in Silicon Valley and I totally fell in love with the idea of getting together with a group of people with limited resources (a laptop, skills and an internet connection), an API and the desire to create an application. Felt pretty similar to what any startup does in its startup days! So when Corey and I talked about a hackathon being held in Toronto, for local developers to work with local APIs, well you know what happened next: HackTO was born.

I am very excited to announce HackTO. The idea behind HackTO is to have a series of APIs made available by local startups. And connect these APIs with local developers to build – in a day – amazing applications.

We are still working out all the details – much planning ahead – but here are the basics:

DATE: Saturday May 15. This is an all day hackhaton. We will be providing breakfast and lunch.

LOCATION: TBD. We are still working out the location details. It will be downtown.

Last minute planning for Photocamp in Toronto. It is exciting to see the number of participants and explore their photography. We are pumped for the first Toronto Photocamp! If you are interested in joining us this is your last chance so go ahead and register.

Say hi!
I know you want to, so don't be shy! If email is not your thing, carrier pigeons may work too although I hear they are somewhat less reliable then email - but you go ahead and take your chances!